he early history of
Virginia, one runs the risk of misrepresenting the true character of
the Virginia adventure. Contrary to the impression that will be gained
from many of our modern textbooks, the Virginia Company represented
much more than the commercial interests of the port of London. Its
membership included many gentlemen and noblemen of consequence in the
kingdom. Some of them, no doubt, became subscribers to a Virginia
joint-stock for the same reason that often led members of the landed
classes in England into commercial ventures. But others, quite
evidently, subscribed because of a sense of public responsibility, or
simply because skilfully managed propaganda had put pressure on them to
accept a responsibility of social or political position. For the
Virginia adventure was a public undertaking, its aim to advance the
fortunes of England no less than the fortunes of the adventurers
themselves.

It would be helpful if we knew more about the original Virginia
adventurers than we do. The records are so incomplete as to make
impossible anything approaching a full list of the first subscribers.
However, enough is known to suggest the broad range of experience and
interest belonging to those who now joined in a common effort to build
an empire for England in America. The original charter of 1606 lists
only eight of the adventurers by name, they being the ones in whose
names the petition for the charter had been made. This list omits Sir
John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench, who may well have
been the prime mover in the enterprise, and Sir Thomas Smith, who was
an active leader from an early date. Four of the eight men listed are
identified as belonging to the London group. Sir Thomas Gates was a
soldier and veteran of campaigns in the Netherlands who would later
serve as the colony's governor. Sir George Somers had led many attacks
against Spanish possessions in Queen Elizabeth's day, was a member of
parliament, and would meet his death four years later in Bermuda while
on a mission of rescue for Virginia. Edward Maria Wingfield was another
soldier who had fought in the Netherlands. He belonged to a family
which had acquired extensive estates in Ireland, and he too would go to
Virginia, where he served as first president of the colony's council.
The most interesting of the four was Richard Hakluyt, a clergyman whose
chief mission in life had been the encouragement of overseas adventures
by his fellow co